Reflective Creations - About Me...
About Me
All my life i've had a great love of arts and crafts, and also of being outdoors- be it walking on a beach or along a clifftop, swimming in the sea or standing at the top of a mountain. For me there is an obvious connection between creativity and nature- the natural world provides endless sources of inspiration, and I could never be bored of landscapes and seascapes.
Growing up in south-west England, I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by beautiful countryside, and have always been inexplicably drawn to the sea and coastal scenery.
Upon visiting south-west Ireland, I discovered places even more rugged and dramatic where, as one of my poems describes, 'The eyes learn to feel, the heart learns to find, the day can change a thousand times, and the mood has no choice but to follow'.
I have spent much of the past four years in Ireland, mainly on the Dingle Peninsula, a remote stretch of mountainous beauty reaching into the wild Atlantic - at the most westerly point in Europe. It is home to many artists, craftspeople and musicians, steeped in cultural history, a place where Irish Gaelic is still spoken as the first language.
I started by drawing sketches, taking lots of photographs, and appreciating the visual beauty of the area. I then stumbled upon a bead shop purely by chance, and was captured by the vast selection of colours, patterns and shapes available, so I started experimenting with jewellery too.
Besides the obvious aesthetic attraction of the Dingle Peninsula, it also encouraged me to pursue another form of expression, in writing. Although the scenery is stunning and the place is a 'creative hub', it can be extremely lonely and quite a difficult place to live due to its remote location. Dingle has a mysterious quality, a magnetism which draws people to it, and even the strongest and well grounded people will find themselves questioning various aspects of their lives as they are offered the chance for contemplation and reflection.
So, given so much mental and physical space to think, I started translating what perhaps had previously been only subconscious thoughts into poems. I built up a collection, writing erratically, sometimes many poems in a few days, and then nothing for months. I can't sit down and write a poem, I have to wait for it to manifest and begin to structure itself in my head before I can put pen to paper.
My main creative aim is to be able to directly portray visual images and specific places as pieces of jewellery work, for example to make a necklace that represents a particular view, or part of a beach. In this way, my jewellery can become meaningful at a greater level- it can be something to keep from a moment or memory in a special place, without physically altering or disturbing the precious landscapes that still remain.
My designs for jewellery and cards are a changing process, and as ideas develop, so my creations will change. My work reflects the scenery and experiences I am affected by, and just as landscapes change, and life changes, so too, gradually, will my crafts - because everything in life naturally grows and alters in time, and not even objects should be an exception to this...